A good place to start is by identifying what types of restaurants you might be thinking of opening. What does a good restaurant look like?
To begin, let’s define the term “restaurant” for our purposes. The Food and Drug Administration defines a restaurant as any business that serves food for immediate consumption or that sells prepared food for immediate consumption.
While it’s true that most people eat out at least once a week, the average American patron spends more than $9.00 a week eating out. To keep up with that rate of spending, restaurant owners need to keep their prices low enough to entice customers to eat there often.
When pricing food items, the best way to do this is to price them in relation to the competition. To do this, you can ask yourself questions such as “what will customers spend at my competitor’s restaurant?” and “how does that affect my business?”
The same goes for pricing drinks. For example, if you plan on selling bottled water to customers, you’ll want to look at what consumers pay
Here’s a quick primer on what types of restaurants there are and the different factors you can use to describe them.
Fine Dining
We’re talking about people who frequent fine dining restaurants on a regular basis. They may eat there three or four times a month, if not more. This is a good group to consider because this type of customer is already inclined to be willing to pay more for a better experience.
Fine dining restaurants typically offer more sophisticated, unique and expensive cuisine than those found in the average restaurant. These factors make up the “fine dining experience,” but a fine dining restaurant can be a simple, inexpensive restaurant that caters to the lunch crowd or even offers table service.
Some fine dining restaurants are high end, offering the type of food that is not available at typical fast food restaurants. Other fine dining restaurants offer simpler food choices such as sandwiches, salads, wraps, appetizers, and entrees.
Casual Dining
A casual dining restaurant is a full-service concept with a laid-back, comfortable, family-friendly ambiance and an affordable menu. A fine dining restaurant has an upscale ambiance, a dress code, a chef-curated highly-priced menu, and service held to the “white tablecloth” standard.
The difference between a casual and fine dining restaurant may seem like semantics. But it really isn’t. It goes much deeper than that. At a casual restaurant, people aren’t expecting to be treated like royalty.
They’re looking for a low-pressure environment where they can relax and have fun with their families. At a fine dining restaurant, however, people expect to be treated like kings or queens, to be wined and dined, to be served in a beautiful space, and to be treated like royalty.
Contemporary Casual
These places are usually pretty high-end and feature a lot of organic produce and meats. In general, though, they’re more about the atmosphere than the food.
Many of them are located in urban centers. At here, people don’t have the time or inclination to cook at home or to go out to eat.
While it’s true that the food offerings in these contemporary casual restaurants sophisticatedly. They are often quite delicious, the real appeal lies in the ambiance.
Diners enter these spaces hoping to experience a unique dining experience. Usually one that includes a trendy atmosphere, creative menus, and a well-appointed wine cellar.
The success of contemporary casual restaurants comes down to whether or not. These places manage to capture the attention of diners.
These restaurants are not designed to be long-term investments. They tend to be short-lived and will ultimately be replaced with another, newer concept.
How to choose a restaurant
Choosing a restaurant can be a difficult decision for any group, but it becomes doubly difficult when you’re dealing with teenagers. There are so many factors to consider when picking where your group will dine.
It can be tempting to choose the cheapest option, but the consequences of that choice may not be what you expect. It’s important to take your time, make a solid decision, and communicate it to your group.
